Vegetable & Feta Quiche

I made a delicious, very simple quiche last week:

9 in pie crust
3 eggs
1 T. flour
2 c. vegetables (I used generous half cups each of sliced mushrooms, chopped fresh spinach, chopped      scallions and broccoli florets, plus a little red pepper -- lots of combinations would work)
1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 c. milk
garlic
salt, pepper

Bake crust for a 5-7 minutes at 450 to set.  Lower oven to 350.  Mix eggs, milk and flour.  Add vegetables and garlic and then cheese.  If this combination of vegetables and cheese does not seem to you to have enough flavor, add more garlic or try a feta with garlic or herbs.  Bake at 350 for at least 50 minutes.  It is done when knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Reheats very easily. I have not made quiche in ages and this reinterested me in this old standby.

Balsamic Garlic Rosemary bread dipping oil

We recently tried a new bread dipping oil, Balsamic and Roasted Garlic Dipping Oil, from CDKitchen.com (#50862):

25 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus
1 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place unpeeled garlic cloves in baking dish. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes. Cool. 

Squeeze garlic between fingertips to release cloves. Transfer garlic cloves to blender. Add vinegar and rosemary and puree herb mixture until smooth. With machine running, gradually add remaining 1 cup olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Dipping oil can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand 15 minutes at room temperature and whisk before using.)

This oil is very tasty - a strong, but not overwhelming garlic flavor and just enough rosemary to make the taste and scent quite interesting.  It is fun to make and the roasting garlic makes the house smell terrific.  My friend Renee and her family tried the oil with bread, like mine did, but she said her son also liked dipping cucumbers.  But, I have to warn you, no matter how good this tastes, it is not an attractive dish,  The balsamic "takes over" and colors the oil a very dark brown.  Using the blender makes a very thick mix -- of this very dark liquid.  Use your imagination.  But no matter how unappetizing this recipe may look, it tastes delicious.    

Bravo Cucina bread dipping oil

My daughters and I really like the bread dipping oil served at Bravo Cucina Italiano, a restaurant chain in the Pittsburgh area.   There a several "copy cat" recipes on the internet, but I think those recipes are much too light on the tomato taste that is characteristic of the Bravo oil.  After a couple tries, I think this tastes a lot like Bravo's, or even if it isn't, it is pretty damn good:

1/2 c. olive oil
   2 t.  sun-dried tomato paste
1/2 t.  dried basil
1/2 t.  dried thyme
1/2 t.  dried rosemary
1/4 t.  very finely minced garlic or garlic powder
salt (very little)
pepper

Whisk sun-dried tomato paste and oil in a bowl.  Add basil, thyme and rosemary crushing them very finely with your fingers.  Whisk.  Add garlic and salt and pepper.  If possible, let it all blend for a couple hours before using.  Delicious.

Lemon Dressing

Recently we tried a Lemon Dressing (Recipe #107816) from CDKitchen.com:

2 T. lemon juice
2 T. water
1 T. olive oil
1/2 t. prepared mustard
1/4 t. crushed garlic
dash worchestshire sauce
dash sugar
dash crushed thyme

Combine in bowl or jar and whisk or shake

Makes two servings.

We tried it with bread and thought it was very good. Served on a green salad with crumbled blue cheese, I thought it was a little bland and Emma thought it was too lemony if you didn't also happen to get a little blue cheese on your fork. But my friend Carol, who along with her family, has kindly tried several of my dressings, said it was the best yet.

CD Kitchen is a nice site for a tremendous variety of recipes.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

My friend, Barb told me about this dressing -- so, let's call it Barb's Vinaigrette:

7 oz olive oil
2 oz balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper


Whisk or shake

The balsamic taste is very strong.  Balsamic tastes "sweet" to me, and I don't always like that, but this is an excellent, everyday dressing.  Add garlic and/or blue cheese and it is absolutely outstanding.

Also great as a dipping oil.

Starting with Vinaigrette

It seems that every cookbook with more than one or two salad dressing recipes includes a recipe for vinaigrette.  Generally the formula is three to four parts oil (usually olive oil) to one part vinegar, with salt and pepper.  Garlic and/or a teaspoon or so of Dijon mustard are almost standard. Herbs and other extras, if you wish. Whisk or shake -- I don't think it makes a difference.

So, there is the basic recipe.  Plain vinegar, cider or white or red wine vinegar: sure it changes the taste a bit, but the same basic recipe works.  Balsamic vinegar makes the biggest difference in the taste.  My friend, Barbara recently mentioned that she has been getting all kinds of compliments on her "new" salad dressing:  balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Can't get much easier than that.  I will have to try it.